You are here

Navy volunteer recalls traveling 39,000 miles on one ship

By Joe Todd

Historian

(Editor’s note: Following are excerpts from an interview given by Russell Kunkler in Joplin, Mo. Local historian Joe Todd recorded the World War II reminiscenses on Dec. 22, 2012, for the Eisenhower Library of Abilene, Kan. The interview will be continued in the June 10 edition.)

Kunkler: I was born in Lamar, Mo., on Jan. 28, 1924. I went to school in Lamar, but not all the way through. I would have graduated in 1942 and I still go to the reunions. I went to a lot of schools in the Navy.

Todd: In your schooling in Lamar who was your favorite teacher?

K: They were all favorites unless it would have been Mrs. Crow in the grade school. She was just a great lady and was just out of high school and was a pretty lady.

T: What type of work did your father do?

K: He was a carpenter, and a jack of all trades.

T: How large was Lamar in those years?

K: I think it was about 2,500.

T: Isn’t that where Harry Truman was born?

K: Yes. Harry and I were both born in Lamar. I was born about 10 blocks south of where Harry had lived.

T: What chores did you do around the house?

K: Whatever Mom and Dad said to do.

T: Describe the house you lived in.

K: I think we moved about every year. We were out on the farm three years — south of Lamar on old Jefferson Highway. One year I plowed 20 acres and planted it and it didn’t do a thing. We planted corn and maybe got a bushel or two from each half acre. This was in the 1930s.

T: Did you have a walking plow or riding plow?

K: Walking plow.

T: Horses or mules?

K: We had two horses, Fred and Babe. Babe was blind. We did have Pete, a mule, too, and a little Arabian pony named Topsy.

T: How did the Depression affect you and your family?

K: I don’t believe it did. My dad worked for the WPA. Kids didn’t know.

T: Did you get dust from the storms in western Oklahoma and Kansas?

K: When that cloud came up, our chickens went to roost at noon. That is how dark it was. I couldn’t tell you what year but it was in the 30s. The storm came in from Oklahoma.

T: How did you keep the dust out of the house?

K: Mom wet sheets and hung them over the windows and they ran all of us kids in the house.

T: Was there a movie theater in Lamar?

K: Yes, old Mr. Simmons — I can’t remember his first name. He had the theater. It has been redone.

T: How often would you go to the movies?

K: When we lived in the country, A.J. Kripes out of Pittsburg, Kan., had Town Talk Bread Co.For five bread wrappers, you got a free ticket to the movies. My sister and I had friends in town that saved the wrappers for us and we would walk, get our bread wrappers, and go to the movies about once a week.

T: Who was your favorite actor in those years?

K: There were serials but I couldn’t tell you who my favorite actor was. When I was 16, I got to go to Chicago and see (movie actress) Alexis Smith. She was a little bean pole, and ugly. That about broke my heart.

T: At the movies when they had the newsreels, what did you think when you saw the war going on in China and the rise of Hitler in Germany.

K: I don’t think I even thought about it or not. We never went very far from home, except the one trip to Chicago.

T: Why did you go to Chicago?

K: I had an aunt and uncle up there.

T: How did you end up in the military?

K: I was married and all my buddies had already gone. But, my wife’s dad was a farmer and I was helping him because he was sick. They didn’t call me, so I volunteered for the draft and they took me.

T: Where did you meet your wife?

K: Lamar. She was in school.

T: What is her name?

K: Ima Jean Jones.

T: When did you get married?

K: On the 20th of June, 1942, in Greenfield (Mo.).

T: Could you have gotten a deferment for working on the farm?

K: I was deferred, but I volunteered. Everyone knew everyone else in Lamar. Lynn Delissa was the head of the draft board. I told him my wife was pregnant. He told me let him know when the baby was born. When the baby was born I told him. But they didn’t call me, so I volunteered.

T: How did rationing affect you?

K: As far as I know it didn’t. You just carried on. Shoes got pretty thin and tires were hard to get. My father was a carpenter and worked at Camp Crowder and Fort Leonard Wood.

T: Being a farmer did you get extra gas ration stamps?

K: Yes.

T: When did you volunteer to go into the service?

K: December 1943. A bunch of guys that were coming up for the draft were 4F, but a lot of those guys got reclassified later on and they drafted them. I went to Mr. Delissa’s house and told him I wanted to volunteer. He said they were taking a bunch that night and, if I was sincere, to meet him at the court house. A week later, I was on my way to Farragut, Idaho.

T: Did you request the Navy?

K: No. They asked a few questions and had been in the plumbing business and answered them right so I was in the Navy. I had requested the Army but was told to talk to the Navy recruiter and I was on my way.

T: How did you travel to Farragut?

K: On the Burlington Northern Freight train out of Kansas City.

T: Tell me about the trip.

K: Back then, they had a car stuck on the train with soldiers and sailors and it was a local train and stopped at every town. I think it took two days to go from Kansas City to Farragut.

T: Where did you sleep on the train?

K: I can’t remember on that train. Later on, they put us on converted boxcars that had bunks.

T: Tell me about boot camp.

K: It was colder than hell. Twenty below zero. Farragut is in the panhandle of Idaho and there were six camps there. I was in Camp Benyon. It was cold because I was out there in January. It didn’t take long to learn that Boot Camp was nothing but discipline. They said there was the right way, wrong way and the Navy way.

T: What type of training did you have?

K: You got all the general stuff: how to make you bed and things like that.

T: What was the nearest town to Farragut?

K: Athol, Idaho. Coeur D’Alene, Wash., was the nearest big city.

T: Were you allowed to go to town during basic?

K: We had days off and, if you went to Washington, they gave you a little extra. But, if you stayed right there, you had more time.

T: What did you do when you went off post?

K: Played pool in the pool hall, that was about it. I was a married guy. The younger ones were 17 and I was 19, so they looked up to me like a father. You wouldn’t think that, but it was. There was one little kid that asked about a tattoo on my arm that said “RR.” I told him it was for the railroad because I was born on a passenger train. He found out later I was lying to him and thought he was going to get mad, but he didn’t because we were friends. You did things like that in boot camp.

T: How long did Boot Camp last?

K: Eight weeks, I think.

T: After boot camp where did you go?

K: I went to Chicago, to Great Lakes Training Camp for basic engineering. After that, I went to Richmond, Va., for diesel school. We worked on all types of small engines. Then I went to Beloit, Wis., to the Fairbanks-Morse Plant. That was the main plant that made engines and they were on submarines. I don’t remember how long each of those schools lasted. Then they sent everybody in the Atlantic Ships to Little Creek, Va., and formed crews. I was assigned to LSM-123.

T: When were you assigned to a ship?

K: She was commissioned Dec. 16, 1944, in Houston, Texas.

T: Are you a plank owner?

K: Yes. I was in the commissioning crew. I was sent to Houston and was on her before she was commissioned. After she was launched, we were tied up at the Brown Shipyards in Houston.

T: How did you travel to Houston?

K: Train. I went to Little Creek, Va., then to Houston. It was as old train. When we left Little Creek, there was a new passenger train with Pullman Cars that had German prisoners. And we were in old boxcars. Those Germans were happy campers.

T: You were assigned to what division on the ship?

K: The engine room.

T: What your job there?

K: I was a motor machinist. You take care of the engines. On our little ship, we had the Black Gang in the engine room. We had a compressor go out and one guy had worked in refrigeration and we overhauled that compressor because we had the spare parts. At that time, ships had priority and you could get about anything you needed.

T: What engines did you have on the ship?

K: We had Fairbanks-Morse 3268A opposed-piston engines. They had an upper and lower crank that went into a hydraulic coupling. We were hydraulics driven, fluid drive.

T: How many knots could you make on the ship?

K: Wide open, 14 knots. I went 39,000 miles on that ship.

T: What does a landing ship do?

K: Put everything on the beach. When we left here we went to Panama and picked up pontoons and took them to Okinawa. These were the pontoons used to make pontoon bridges and were lashed to the side of the ship. When we got there no one was big enough to take them off so we were there 9 days. One thing for sure the ship was not going to sink with those pontoons.

T: When did you arrive in Okinawa?

K: April 25, 1945.

T: When you left Houston, where did you go?

K: We went up the Mississippi to New Orleans and picked up a load of naphtha gas in barrels and stabilizers for the PBYs, the seaplane. We had well deck and we could hold 200 tons.

T: What is naphtha gas used for?

K: I’m not sure. It was a cleaner.

T: Where did you take it?

K: Panama. On the way down the Mississippi we hit a log because it was flooded. The officers didn’t go in and get if fixed and the vibration bent a screw. We had to go in dry dock in Panama but I guess that was a blessing because it kept us away from Iwo Jima. We had a screw replaced and straightened the other.

T: How long were you in Panama?

K: A week, probably.

T: What did you do in that week?

K: Work on the ship. When the ship is in dry dock you scrape the bottom. The ship was brand new but we did it anyway. We were busy all the time.

T: Where were your quarters on the ship?

K: I was midship. The crew had 54 men and 6 officers.

T: Tell me about going through the Panama Canal.

K: It is great. It is mind boggling. We went through a bunch of locks and there was a lake out in the middle.

T: From Panama where did you go?

K: San Diego and refitted out ship. We had a single 40 mm gun on the bow and they put on twin 40s. They tore out all the radios and redid the gyro.

T: It was a new ship.

K: It was a new ship but that was the government. I don’t know why they didn’t do that in Houston.

T: How long did that take?

K: 3 weeks.

T: From San Diego where did you go?

K: Went to Hawaii for 3 days then went to Okinawa.

T: Did you go to Pearl Harbor?

K: Yes we were at the sub base.

T: Could you see Battleship Row?

K: I didn’t think about that. We then went to Eniwetok then to Guam and to Buckner Bay at Okinawa. We stopped at Saipan before we went to Okinawa.

T: What did you do at Saipan?

K: Waiting.

T: What were you told to do in case the ship was torpedoed and sinking?

K: They didn’t tell us anything, just General Quarters.

T: Where was your General Quarters?

K: On the port engine in the bottom of the ship.

T: If the ship was torpedoed were you going to be able to get out?

K: Depended on where it hit.

T: What was your duty during General Quarters?

K: On watch on the port engine. We had a man on the throttle and a man on the earphones so you would know what to do. I was sitting there waiting to be told something to do. We could go into reverse in about 7 seconds. You had to wait until the ship came to a stop. When we were in Okinawa waiting for the pontoons to be taken off we helped unload ships.

T: Had Okinawa been secured?

K: No, we made 3 or 4 trips back and forth from the Philippines to the Okinawa before it was secured. We made a couple of trips to Ia Shima, the island where Ernie Pyle was killed. We hauled trucks and their ground crews. We hauled a load of B-29 engines to Tinian where the B-29s were based. While we were on that trip several ships in our flotilla went to Borneo and several got banged up.

T: How does an LSM compare to an LST?

K: The LSM is a ¼ as big. An LST is a big thing. They carried a lot of stuff but took a long time to get there and a long time to unload. There were times the LST were sitting on the beach when the tide went out because they didn’t get unloaded. We were on the beach a time or two when the tide went out and that is not a good thing. You have to shut everything down until the tide comes in. When you come in you drop the ramp and start unloading and start pumping the ballast out so you can float. You ran the engines in reverse and they cleared the sand away.

T: How many trips did you make to Okinawa?

K: I think we made 4 trips. We left one time and went to the Solomons and picked up equipment. That was a staging area. We picked up tanks and took them to Guam. I’m not sure but I think they sunk them for a water break.

T: Was the war winding down at this time?

K: The war didn’t wind down until Harry dropped the bomb.

T: Were you preparing for the invasion of Japan?

K: You better damn well believe it.

T: What were you doing?

K: Moving people and getting ready. Fighter planes were in Okinawa and that was the staging area for the invasion.

T: What were you thinking about invading Japan?

K: Me going home. Harry probably saved several million Americans and a lot more Japanese.

T: Were you brining supplies in for the invasion?

K: Yes. We were just a truck on the ocean. We took one load into Okinawa and it was almost all musical instruments. We brought all kinds of goods in for the soldiers. I was in Okinawa when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. We went to the Philippines after the bomb was dropped. We loaded up equipment to build a bridge in Japan. We had an Army engineering unit and all their equipment to build this bridge. We were in the second wave in and it was like an invasion. The Japanese civilians were there and bowed to us.

T: What were you thinking getting off on Japan?

K: I was in the engine room and wondering about them sending us a message to get out of there.

T: What did you think when you heard about the atomic bomb?

K: Good but didn’t know anything about it. We never lost a man on our ship. We had Kamikazes miss us. A Japanese Betty Bomber hit the water right next to us and thought we were going to turn over but made it.

T: Were you in the engine room during this?

K: Yes.

T: Were you informed the Kamikazes were coming in?

K: Yes.

T: What were you thinking?

K: Oh, hell. The suicide boats were just as bad.

T: Tell me about the suicide boats.

K: They were in Okinawa and there were a lot of caves and they would come out at night and try to hit us.

T: What did they have on the suicide boats?

K: They had torpedoes and explosive charges.

T: How were they going to blow up a ship?

K: Banging it.

T: Were they successful?

K: One night one got through and hit a transport and knocked a hole in it. The ship listed but didn’t sink. We made smoke.

T: What is making smoke?

K: We had a smoke generator and fog oil. There is a generator that is gasoline fired and heats up a cast iron nozzle and sprays that fog oil and makes smoke for the ships to hide. One bad thing, the ship that is making smoke stands out.

T: In the smoke how do the ships keep from hitting each other?

K: We had radar. That is one thing we had over the Japs.

T: Where were you on V-J Day/

K: I was in the Philippines when the surrender was signed. A lot of shooting was going on in the celebrations and several guys got hit by all that lead coming down.

T: How long were you in the Navy Occupation of Japan?

K: I left Japan January 13, 1946.

T: What do you do as occupation troops?

K: Our main thing was in the Kure Navy Base. We took supplies in and distributed them.

T: Where did you go when you left Japan?

K: San Diego then to Jefferson Barracks and was discharged.

T: When did you get you discharge?

K: February 3, 1946.

T: What did you do after the war?

K: I worked as a plumber in Lamar.

T: When did you come to Joplin?

K: We left Lamar and went to Iola, Kansas and the 20th of June 1966 we came to Joplin.

T: Why did you come to Joplin?

K: $2.00 an hour raise.

T: You worked as a plumber?

K: Yes. I worked for Stanley Plumbing here in town.

T: When did you retire?

K: September 1986.

T: Would you join the Navy again?

K: If I saw I had to do it.

T: I’d like to do a word association. I’ll give you some words and you give me your reaction.

K: I’ll try it.

T: The first one is Adolf Hitler.

K: Insane.

T: Tojo.

K: Too many words but another insane man.

T: Boot Camp.

K: A place to learn to be a good sailor.

T: LSM-123

K: A great home away from home and a family. We watched out for each other.

T: Panama.

K: Sad.

T: Why?

K: Every kid in this country needs to go to Panama after high school to see the poverty. Little kids on the streets and stuff like that.

T: Okinawa.

K: Sad is all I can say. We were in a typhoon at Okinawa and washed ships on the beach. We had just left on the way to Eniwetok. On the way we hit 40 foot swells and a lot of guys were seasick in that typhoon.

T: Why was Okinawa sad?

K: Lost so many people on both sides. Innocent people on Okinawa were killed. The Japanese military brainwashed the civilians and many jumped off the cliffs.

T: World War II.

K: A great thing we got it done. It was supposed to end war but it didn’t

T: Franklin Roosevelt.

K: Thank God for Franklin. He made it so we could survive the Depression. I was in the CCC camp at Marshall, Missouri.

T: What did you do?

K: They planted trees but I worked in the kitchen. It was a conservation camp. We got paid the same as the Army and we kept a few dollars and the rest went to the family.

T: Harry Truman.

K: God bless Harry Truman. He had a lot of guts to do what he did, he saved a lot of GI’s

T: How do you want to be remembered?

K: Just what I am.

T: Anything else?

K: No. Life has been fantastic. I had a beautiful lady.

T: Sir, this is an excellent interview. I want to thank you for your service and thank you for the interview.